Marc Danel masterclass

Marc Danel masterclass

Dmitri Shostakovich

In this Masterclass Marc Danel works with the Cheng Quartet from Taïwan on Shostakovitch 9th quartet.

Written in 1964, this five mouvements piece is, as every quartet by Shostakovitch, closely related to his personal life.
It is dedicated to his third wife, Irina Antonovna, who is still alive and very active to promote his music.

The first mouvement is a sort of introduction in a caracter of expectance, it has two slow mouvements, the second and the fourth, about which Valentin Berlinsky, cellist of the Borodin Quartet said:
"the second mouvement is for the mankind, the fourth for God..."

The third is a quite typical active and a bit sarcastic scherzo, with a very typical mahlerian flavour.

The last mouvement is somehow the heart of the piece, extremely long and symphonic, finishing in a tragic crescendo

Marc's approach towards this piece by Shostakovitch is to combine passing the oral traditions we had the chance to get from both Borodin and Beethoven Quartets, the two quartets that worked the closest with the composer and trying to get the quartet to find their own voice.

This masterclass consists of 7 lessons.